


The Best Birthday Present

by loves_books



Category: A-Team (2010), A-Team - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-24
Updated: 2013-07-24
Packaged: 2017-12-21 06:23:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/896891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loves_books/pseuds/loves_books
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal spends an anxious birthday watching over a badly injured Face</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Birthday Present

“I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear, Bossman, but happy birthday.”

Hannibal looked up to see Murdock standing in the doorway with a half-hearted smile fixed in place. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the still figure in the bed, tightening his grip on the limp hand. “Thanks, Murdock, but you’re right: I don’t want to hear it. Not today.”

A soft sigh from behind him as the pilot moved further into the room, crossing to the other side of the bed. “I know, Hannibal, but he’d want me to say it.” The colonel watched as Murdock leaned down, carefully pressing a chaste kiss to his friend’s forehead. “Mornin’, Facey. And how are you doin’ today?”

“Still no change.” Hannibal let out a sigh of his own, shifting his weight on the uncomfortable hospital chair. “Stable, at least. But they don’t have any answers.”

Face looked so peaceful, eyes closed loosely, long lashes fanned out across high cheekbones. A thin tube snaked across his nostrils, giving oxygen, while a single IV line fed into his left arm, but otherwise, with the sheets pulled up to his shoulders, there were no visible signs of the injuries that had left him in the hospital. The burns across his chest and abdomen were already healing well, widespread but relatively minor, free of infection and unlikely to leave any scarring. But Face still lay unconscious.

Murdock perched carefully on the edge of the bed, wary of the monitors, one hand threading through his friend’s limp hair and stroking gently. “Stable is good. Lots of worse things than stable.” Hannibal could feel the younger man watching him, but kept his gaze locked on his boy’s face. So pale, under that perpetual tan. “He’s gonna wake up soon, Hannibal, you know this. The docs said real soon now.”

Nodding slowly, Hannibal didn’t say out loud what he was thinking. That the doctors had said Face should’ve woken up two days ago, when they stopped the sedatives and decreased his painkillers. But Face slept on, unresponsive. A true sleeping beauty. Though Hannibal had already tried waking him with a kiss, when no one was around. More than once.

Instead, he simply said, “I know, Murdock. Soon.” And again he squeezed Face’s hand, hoping to feel those long, elegant fingers close around his own.

As the day went by, there was still no change. As there had been the previous two days, once Face had been moved from the intensive care unit into a private room, there was a steady stream of visitors. Friends and colleagues from across the base, some only just now hearing the news, all stopped by to say a few words to the unconscious man, but none of them got a response.

Throughout it all, Hannibal stayed by his boy’s side, trying to stay calm. The doctors and nurses kept a constant check on Face, and assured the colonel there was no reason to worry, but they couldn’t say why he wasn’t waking up.

The first day, after they had removed the drip containing the sedative, the doctors had warned Hannibal that it would take some time to work its way out of Face’s system. That Face had never responded particularly well to sedatives or anaesthetics, and that it might take a few hours.

The second day, with Face still unresponsive, they had reduced the amount of painkillers in the hope that the pain would bring the lieutenant around. But still, no response.

Murdock and BA were in and out of the room the whole day, both men hovering anxiously around their friend, covering him in small touches, designed to reassure both Face and themselves. BA was the only other visitor who dared mention Hannibal’s birthday.

“We’ll celebrate when he’s better, right, boss?” BA had murmured quietly, rubbing one big hand slowly up and down his friend’s arm, careful to avoid the IV line. 

“Absolutely,” Hannibal had agreed. It didn’t feel even remotely like his birthday, not without Face by his side, smiling up at him with those twinkling blue eyes, kissing him in celebration. A thought suddenly occurred to him. “Do you know what he had planned?”

A small smile crept over BA’s face. “I know some of it, boss. Not all.” Face was always at the heart of birthday celebrations for the team, always the one to coordinate the parties and gifts. Hannibal had felt thoroughly spoiled his last few birthdays, since the two of them had finally stepped up their relationship – even though they always seemed to be in the middle of a warzone, Face always managed to make his birthday special. “I know you both should’ve been on a transport out of here last night.”

“Really?” He hadn’t thought that getting them away from base was possible, even for Face. 

BA nodded. “Murdock talked to the pilot, let him know the situation. Other than that, all I know is he had some hotel reservations, somewhere near the sea. Two or three days, I think he said.”

“That would’ve been good.” No, that would’ve been amazing. They hadn’t had any time away together, just the two of them, for almost six months. “How on earth did you arrange all that, baby?” he asked his unconscious lover, hoping for a response, but not really expecting one. They’d been out on a mission for the last three weeks, so Face must have been planning way in advance. Before the explosion that had thrown him from the jeep on the way back to base.

“Face didn’t even tell the crazy fool where the hotel was, so we’ve not managed to let them know. He’ll sort it himself, boss.” BA chuckled softly, moving his hand up from Face’s arm to rest on his friend’s head instead. “Hell, knowing him, he’ll have it all rearranged just as soon as he gets back on his feet.”

“I’d give it all up in a heartbeat, as long as he wakes up,” Hannibal admitted, lifting Face’s hand to his lips and kissing those limp fingers, quickly lowering it back to the bed as he heard footsteps in the corridor. Another doctor coming to check on his lover, to assure Hannibal that there really was no head injury, no other injuries they had missed. More blood tests, another scan maybe. “Just wake up, kid,” Hannibal whispered. 

By the time evening came around, the doctors were talking about transferring Face to a larger base, a more specialised hospital. Hannibal could tell they were worried now, no longer quite as reassuring as they had been. The attempted explanations – shock, exhaustion, lingering drugs in his lieutenant’s bloodstream – had dried up, and they were talking through the possibilities of trying stimulants in the morning.

Throughout everything, Hannibal still tried to stay calm, playing the role of concerned CO rather than panicked lover. Thankfully he had always had a reputation for being overprotective and far too involved whenever someone under his command was injured, so he was an accepted presence in his XO’s room. When one junior doctor asked about the possibility of contacting Face’s next of kin, Hannibal had had to explain that, actually, he was Face’s emergency contact. The doctor had apologised profusely and left quickly, leaving Hannibal alone with his boy once more.

“You couldn’t have planned a worse birthday for me if you’d tried, kid.” Nothing. “I know you’re tired, and I know you hurt, but I really need you to wake up for me. You’ve been asleep long enough now, baby.” He leaned in closer, brushing one hand gently across Face’s forehead, hoping to see a flicker of consciousness pass over his lover’s lax face. “You’re scaring me, Face, and you know that’s not easy to do,” he whispered, feeling the worry he had been carefully holding in check start to take over. If something was seriously wrong, if the doctors couldn’t figure it out… If Face didn’t wake up…

Starting to drown in his thoughts, he almost missed the slight flutter of eyelashes, lasting barely a second. He didn’t miss the feeling of fingers twitching in his grasp, and instinctively pushed up out of his chair, squeezing tighter as he called softly, “Face? Can you hear me, kid?” Another flutter of eyelashes, coupled with a slight parting of those perfect lips. “Open your eyes, Face. Come on, Lieutenant, show me those baby blues.” 

Face sighed ever so softly, moving his head fractionally as Hannibal cupped his cheek gently, and his eyelids fluttered once more, stronger now. Reaching up, the colonel hit the ‘call’ button as he kept talking, coaxing his lover back from the deep sleep he had been trapped in for so long. He pulled back slightly as the doctors rushed in, forcing himself back into the role of colonel, but refusing to let go of Face’s hand, relieved beyond measure when those long fingers closed fully around his own, weak but holding on. 

Hannibal let the medics work around him, content for now simply to watch his boy closely. The doctors asked all the usual questions – do you know your name, do you know where you are, are you in any pain – and Face answered each question confidently, his initial confusion passing quickly, rough voice growing in strength with each passing minute. Blue eyes drifted up to meet Hannibal’s every time the doctors paused, and the colonel just smiled, revelling in the feeling of that hand holding tightly to his, after so many days of nothing.

Face was passing all their tests with flying colours, until it came to knowing what the date was, when a frown settled over his handsome brow. “It was Wednesday, right, Boss? When we were on our way back to base?”

“You’ve been out for four days, Lieutenant,” one of the doctors told him, and Hannibal watched that frown replaced by a moment of panic.

“It’s your birthday, Hannibal? I didn’t miss it?”

“No, kid, you didn’t miss it.” Resting one hand carefully on Face’s limp curls, Hannibal nodded to the last of the medics as they left the room, satisfied for now that their patient was doing well. “You have perfect timing, as ever, Face.”

Once they were alone again, Face blinked sleepy blue eyes up at Hannibal, who just kept right on stroking his lover’s hair. “Sorry, Boss,” he breathed.

Hannibal moved a little closer. “What on earth for?”

“Messed up your birthday. Had plans, presents…” Face leaned into Hannibal’s touch, letting his eyes drift closed.

“Face.” He waited until his lover blinked up at him again, feeling the incredible rush of relief at seeing those bright blue eyes open at last, eyes he had started to worry had fallen shut for ever. He leaned down, so he could whisper into his boy’s ear. “You are the best birthday present I could ever have wished for.”

Another smile, softer again this time as Face drifted back into a more natural sleep, his fingers remaining locked tight around Hannibal’s. And, as the colonel just sat there, he realised how true his words really were, that there was nothing more he wanted in the world for his birthday, as long as this wonderful man was by his side. He didn’t need parties or presents, didn’t need a special cake with far too many candles on it. Now Face was on the road to recovery at last, Hannibal finally felt his birthday was complete.

The promise of two days in a hotel off base, when Face was a little more recovered? Well, that was just icing on the birthday cake.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a birthday gift for karenjd


End file.
